The Untold Story of the Marauders
by desleimbach
Summary: Marauders Era. Beginning during their 5th year, 1975. The war is drastically picking up pace. Feelings are being noticed and avoided. Friendships are severely tested and some don't hold up. We know the ending but not the beginning, so here it is.
1. Chapter 1

"Moony we're so close!" Sirius exclaimed as the marauders walked into the Great Hall.

"Well why don't you just shout it out to everyone, why don't you?" Remus hissed, "Just let everyone know that my three best friends are all completely breaking the law and trying to become animagi at age 15."

"Breathe, Moony," James patted him on the shoulder, "You're gonna blow a vessel before term even begins. That'll be a record, eh?"

"Oh shut it. You don't help, setting off firecrackers on the train. I am a prefect now and I suspect Dumbledore did it in hopes that I would straighten you lot out," Remus sat down at the end of the table, as they had been doing since halfway through first year.

"Little does he know that you're the brains of most of the stunts we pull," Peter snorted, following suit.

"Oi, he doesn't have all the brains! Hey there, Johnson, looks like someone finally grew a pair. A nice pair at that," Sirius winked at Gabriella Johnson, fellow yearmate, as he sat down next to her, with James on his other side.

"What's he talking about?" Peter whispered, "She's had those since second year."

"Oh, Peter, your friend is just being an absolute prat to kick of them start of term. No different than usual," Gabriella rolled her eyes and slide two feet further away from Sirius.

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"What the hell is this!?" Frank Longbottom shouted as he was one of the first upperclassmen to walk into the common room, "How the hell did they even get in here before the rest of us? No one knew the password!" he shook his head as he went up to the fifth year dorm.

"POTTER!"

"Ahh, Prong's favorite sound, Evans screaming his name. Now if only it was in pleasure and not absolute distaste," Sirius propped his feet up on one of the tables in the corner.

"Padfoot, you're really not helping. I thought we convinced him not to start off the year with yet another marriage proposal to Lily?" Remus sighed as he made his way to the table Sirius claimed and rested his head on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Peter scratched his head, "But then he saw Peeves and he figured Peeves still owed him from last year. So he decided to cash in tonight. That's how this all happened," he gestured towards the many pictures of Lily and James magicked together arranged to spell out 'Lily Potter'.

"Yes, Evans? Or apparently Potter, according to whomever created this masterpiece," James smirked.

"Oh, he's going to slapped," Sirius went to sit on the edge of his seat, but didn't want to disturb Remus, "Please let this be the time she finally does it!"

"Lily, just leave him alone. He does it to get a rise out of you," Marlene McKinnon grabbed Lily and dragged her up the steps to their dorm, with Dani Adams and Alice Fawley giggling as they walked behind them.

"Well, way to make sure she didn't forget you over summer holiday, Prongs," Remus shook his head and stood up, "I am going to go lie down."

"That's always the idea," James smirked.

"Moony, it's only 8:30!" Sirius said in outrage, "Stay up with us; we've missed you."

"Pads, we were just at Prong's for an entire week together, as usual, and we rode here together, as usual, and sat together, as usual. Moony always goes to bed early. He's like my gran," Peter snickered.

"Goodnight, Moony. Be sure to wake me first so I can shower while you fight to wake up this big baby in the morning," Jams waved.

"I'm not waking any of you, so you can learn to grow up and set your own alarms," Remus huffed and turned to head to bed.

"He better not wake me. With my luck, we'll kick off the year with double potions first thing tomorrow morning," Sirius scowled.

"Don't you put that on us, Padfoot," James shook his finger in his face, "We ought to follow Moony and at least head upstairs. First night and all."

"It'll be the only night," Sirius grumbled.

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"Moony! You really didn't wake us. You always wake us. I don't even know how to cast an alarm spell," Sirius exclaimed as he rushed into the Great Hall at 8:50 the following morning.

Moony sipped his tea, "I told you I wasn't going to wake you. Wormtail was able to wake up on time."

"That's because Wormtail is the world's lightest sleeper and Padfoot is probably the heaviest," James yawned, "I only got to wake up because he was yelling out your name and not in the way Evans will be yelling mine by the end of the year. I'm telling you guys, this is -"

"The year," the three of the them said in the same monotone that could only mean that they've heard it one too many times.

"You say it every year, since second year, mate. Do you think maybe it won't happen? Ever," Remus asked.

"Don't believe him, Prongs mate! She'll warm up to you eventually. You are simply irresistible," Sirius puckered his lips in James' direction.

Remus cleared his throat, "Maybe you really should just let her breathe a little. I mean she's always been amicable towards me when we get a study group together or something but I'm going to be spending a lot more time with her this year and I really don't want her hating me and wanting me traded with Longbottom or something."

"Moony, you're bloody brilliant!" James slammed his palm on the table, making half off the table snap their attention towards their end of the table before realizing it was just the marauders, "You're going to be with her all the time. Meetings, rounds, probably questions and the like. Talk to her! Talk me up, not that I need much of that, but just make her see what she's trying so hard not to. That I'm perfect for her!" James' smugness was a clear indication that he thought his plan was flawless.

"No, Prongs," Remus stacked his silverware onto his plate as he got up to leave for class, "Like I said, I don't want her to hate me. We're very good acquaintances and I'd like to even become proper mates with her just to make it better for us. And talking to her about the one person that she loathes more than anyone else in this school is not the way to make that happen. I love you, mate-"

"Oi, I thought Prongs was my lover!" Sirius objected in the background.

"but winning over Lily's heart is all down to you."

"Ha! So I shouldn't give up is what you're saying," James grabbed his time table from Remus.

Remus sighed, "Your selective hearing is almost as bad as Sirius'."

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"Ugh, the nerve of Potter. You would think that he would just leave me the friggin' hell alone," Lily glared at James as he slammed his hand on the table, disrupting everyone's breakfast.

"Lils, just ignore him. We say this every year - he does it because he gets a big, dramatic reaction out of you and if you simply quit reacting then he'll quit all of the theatrics," Marlene rubbed her arm in sympathy.

"Yeah, Lily, Gabi ignores Sirius and he only bothers her about once a month, rather than once a week," Dani giggled.

Gabi rolled her eyes, "I dunno why he insists on messing with me. He's a giant pain in the arse and frankly I hope the giant squid eats him on his way back up from care of magical creatures."

"Oh my goooooosh, I am so over you two complaining. They're fit! Take all of the attention and let it fluff your ego, then walk away," Dani huffed.

"Easy for you to say, you're not having huge pictures of your face plastered all over the common room for everyone to see. For Merlin's sake, I am a prefect this year. The first years aren't going to take me seriously if they see me act that way. But Merlin help me, Potter is such a bloody prat!"

"Easy, dear. Much louder and the entire hall will hear you," Marlene shook her head and laughed at her best friend.

"Oh, there's Sev, I wasn't able to catch up with him last night because we had to escort the first years. I'll meet you lot in class," Lily waved bye and jogged to the doors as Severus walked out.

"Hey! I couldn't find you on the train yesterday. You normally wait on the platform for me, what happened?" Lily linked her arm with his but he quickly shrugged out of it.

"Uhh, sorry, Avery and Yaxley found me and took me off to their compartment. I think Yaxley put some sort of charm on it so no one would disturb us. He was telling us about his summer and I guess was rather embarrassed," Severus tried to laugh it off.

"Oh. Okay. Since when are you ad Yaxley friends?" Lily tucked her hair behind her ear and looked down.

Severus paused at the bottom of the stairs and turned to her, finally making eye contact when the pause was too long, "Lily, it's no big deal. All of our family are friends, it's only a matter of time before our paths cross and we find out that the other is actually pretty decent company. I would like to have more than just you and Avery for my friends."

"No, Sev, I know. It was just surprising is all. We don't get to see each other o much and I know this year it'll be worse because we're both prefects and we have O.W.L.s this year. The train is our main time to just chat and laugh."

Severus sighed and scratched his head, "Yeah I know. I am sorry about that, Lily. If I don't see you today, we're still on for Wednesday night in the library, just as usual."

Lily brushed off his earlier defensiveness and assumed he was just tired or something, so she smiled brightly at him and simply said, "I noticed we have double potions tomorrow before and after lunch, so we'll partner up there. But still on for Wednesday as always. See you later, Sev," she kissed his cheek and walked the other way to charms.

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"So did you hear about the muggle town right outside of south London? Completely wiped out, every single person. Signs of dark magic everywhere, rumors of that same symbol in the air according to some, but of course that didn't make the papers," Dani said solemnly as they headed outside to herbology.

"Yeah," Lily sighed, "I did. This is the first I'm hearing about the symbol but that doesn't surprise me. I saw over the summer, that they were going after actually wizards and witches now. Muggleborns of course but still. I didn't think they would shed magical blood, but again, not exactly surprised."

"Worried, Evans? I wouldn't be if I were you. You could probably take him down on your own. You're top of our class, probably top of the whole school," James winked.

"Joy, you're in this class too, I see," Lily scoffed and picked up her pace as she yelled back at them, "These are serious matters and yet Potter is trying to use the moment to throw a line. Unbelievable!"

"I was just trying to- ugh!" James rubbed his face and turned to Moony, "Is she right though? I didn't read the papers this morning. Was there a bad attack last night?"

Remus nodded once, "Two nights ago but the minister was trying to keep it out of the papers. There's was a quote saying the ministry didn't want to cause a panic but I'd say it's a bit late for that."

"Andy says the aurors are going crazy trying to capture someone, anyone. But by the time they get there, everyone is already dead and the death eaters are long gone. Driving the head of the department mad," Sirius explained.

"Oh you saw Andromeda over the summer? How's Nymphadora?" Remus tried to change the subject.

"No, just wrote her. Mum would kill me if she caught me seeing her and while I don't really care what she thinks, she made it very hard for me to leave the house until Mrs. Potter showed up to collect me. Nymphadora is a riot, as usual. She's trying to control her metamorphmagus skills and she's able to pick a color and change her hair on command. Andy says she's doing great, really advanced for her age."

"Yeah remember dad said he ran into Teddy at the ministry and he told him that her hair color of choice right now is purple," James laughed.

"How many people were in that muggle town?" Peter whispered.

"1,500," Remus sighed.

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"Well I am exhausted!" Sirius yawned as he laid on couch, putting his feet in Remus' lap.

"It's only 8:30," Remus mocked, "Plus you didn't do anything all day, each teacher just talked about what to expect throughout our O.W.L. year," he pushed Sirius's feet out of his lap.

Sirius twisted and laid his head in Remus' lap instead, "Yeah and listening to teachers drone on and on sucks the life out of me. I am not built for that. I am built for casting spells and making women swoon for me. Why are you tired?"

"Still not quite sure why girls swoon, you're not swoon worthy," James strutted over and knocked Sirius' feet off of the couch, almost causing him to fall, "And Moony took a nap after class while we were trying to get the spell down."

"Without me, Moony!? The betrayal!" Sirius wept.

"Oh shove off, Padfoot. You always make fun of me and try to keep me up when I nap. Being new prefects, me and Lily are scheduled on tonight's rounds. We'll be going at 9:30."

James actually gasped, "You're going to be with Evans and didn't tell me!? What kind of mate are you?"

"Yeah, Moony! Bros before hoes! And naps. _Ow_!" Sirius held his abdomen after James punched him in the gut.

"Evans is a wonderful young woman, _not_ a hoe," James fumed.

"Mates before dates?" Sirius asked.

"Better," James nodded.

"Well first, Prongs would have to get a date with Lily," Peter laughed.

"And I will. She's going to come around. This year is-"

"The year," Remus, Sirius, and Peter sighed.

" _Besides_ , Remus is going to help. Nothing drastic," James cut Remus off when he saw signs of protests, "Just some recon for me. Simply apologize for your doofus friend, like I know you've done in the past and just get a feel of her reaction. My problem is obviously that I just haven't asked her in a way that will sweep her off of her feet. But with some help from Moony, I will have a date with her before Christmas break!" James sounded triumphant. Or delusional, depending on who you asked.

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"Hello, Lily," Remus greeted as she descended from the girls' dorm stairs, "How was you first day of classes?"

"Not that you weren't there for all of them," Lily laughed, "It was fine, normal first day. Definitely better than last night for me."

"Yeah I figured that would be brought up. If not by you, then by me so I could apologize for my doofus friend. He seems to think that this year is the year you'll actually march up to him and snog his face off instead of slapping him. Which Sirius is desperately waiting on by the way," Remus explained.

"Oh it's definitely going to be the year that I slap James Potter across his face. He pushed it so close last year and last night was a close call. I think the whole common room knew it too, that's why Marlene dragged me upstairs. Didn't want me setting a bad example for the younger ones."'

"Again, I want to apologize for his idioacity," Remus stepped aside so Lily could walked out of the portrait hall first.

"No, you don't need to apologize for him. You always do it. Potter is a big boy and he knows what he's doing. He's showing his arse and simply doesn't care. That's on him," Lily shrugged.

"You are right, but people tend to see me as the idiot whisperer when it come to James and Sirius, so I'm just used to answering for them."

"Well that's stupid. On other people's part, not yours. Why would anyone think those two would actually listen to someone?" Lily rolled her eyes, "But how was your day, Remus? How was your summer?"

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The two wandered around the corridors, not running into anyone except a first year Ravenclaw who was having a hard time answering the riddle and was in tears over it. Thankfully it was one that Remus had heard before so they were able to let him in. It was just shy of 10:30 when they were nearing the end of their rounds and were heading for the last set of stairs before ending up at the Fat Lady's portrait, when they heard footsteps. At first, thinking it was Flitwick's, seeing as they had already run into him once that night as he was the teacher set to do rounds with them, they just kept walking. But then they heard a deeper tone speak and backtracked around the corner. Standing before them was Bartemius Crouch Jr.

"Excuse me, are you lost? Why are you out of bed so late?" Lily politely asked.

Bartemius snapped around, "No I'm not lost, I'm not an idiot. And it's none of yours as to why I'm out right now so you best just keep walking if you know what's good for you."

"Is that a threat, Crouch?" Remus' wandhand twitched.

It didn't go unnoticed by Bartemius, as his eyes were stuck on his hand, "No, no threats. Just saying you'll wanna keep your nose out of things. You don't want to get hurt. I wouldn't dare hurt a prefect, ut there are others. Others who don't like the blood coursing through your veins. Other who will be doing something about it and-"

"That's enough Crouch. You shouldn't be out of bed and you need to get going, five point will be taken for your obvious rle breaking," a voice came from the shadows.

"Severus? What are you doing out? Are you with him?" Lily's eyes went back and forth, having never been afraid of Severus but right now feeling a little caught off guard.

"No, of course not. I saw him slip out of the common room and went to follow him to-"

"And you've just followed him up the entire castle rather than tell him to get his arse back in? An additional five points taken for lack of proper authority" Remus growled.

Severus looked towards Lily with an eyebrow raised. When Lily said nothing, he scoffed, "Very well then. Crouch, let me show you back to the dungeons."

Severus through his cloak back as he passed between Remus and Lily, making Lily jump. Remus put his arm around her and watched them walk away with hushed whispers between them.


	2. Chapter 2

"You're sure he was with Crouch?" James whispered as they walked past Professor McGonagall and into class the following morning.

"I mean he's a lying, slimey greaseball so I dunno why you're thinking otherwise, Prongs," Sirius snapped, "There were plenty of potential, if not already, death eaters in and out of my home over the summer and although neither of them were there, there was plenty of talk of the 'potion prodigy'. And it's not surprising if Crouch is in the mix, he's 13 but it's obvious he's a lowlife."

"Far stretch from his dad. It just doesn't make any sense for Severus to have simply followed him without saying anything," Remus sat down in the back of the class.

"Unless he felt that Crouch was up to something and decided to tail him to try to figure out what," Peter chirped up.

"I was actually thinking the same thing, Wormtail," Remus agreed.

"Okay, so Wormtail has a point but it's still suspicious and I don't trust him. Either of them. You said even Evans looked disturbed," Sirius leaned back in the chair to where only two legs were on the ground.

"My poor love, she must have been terrified. If only I was there to protect her from the greaseball," James began daydreaming of shirtless heroic acts in the middle of the corridor last night.

Remus snapped in front of his face, "It was an odd situation and we didn't exactly expect anyone to have the galls to be wandering around on our second night back. That's why they assign first year prefects for the first week."

"Yeah well when you're a death eater in training, school isn't exactly a priority so they figure 'who cares if I'm expelled?'. The arseholes," Sirius grumbled as McGonagall called the class to attention.

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"Hey Lily," Severus nodded as he walked into potions, "Sorry about last night. Lupin pissed me off but I got Bartemius back to the common room and escorted him straight to bed."

"Oh thank you. Sorry about the tension, we were just tired and you caught us at the very end of our rounds, so we were just ready for bed," Lily brushed off her discomfort. It was Sev, he was harmless.

"Well how was it patrolling with Lupin?" Severus sneered.

"You know how I feel about him. He's a great bloke, just chooses the worst company," Lily shrugged.

"You know he takes an active part in all that they do. The pranks, the bullying, the taunting. You don't hang out with Potter and Black and keep your hands clean. They'd be too bored with you."

"I know he tries his hardest to keep them in line. I'm sure the stunts those two pulled would be a lot worse if they only had Peter as their voice of reason. He tries. And Remus definitely isn't a bully, he's possibly one of the sweetest in the school."

Severus scoffed, "Need I remind you that he was the one who made my hair hot pink last year for an entire week."

"Remus admitted to McGonagall that he caught Sirius with both goblets and didn't know which was the contaminated one, so he simply set both back down. It was 50/50 from then on. Avery could have just as easily taken the one you did."

"Oh sure, he's entirely innocent. Why didn't he just dump the both of them, problem solved? Lupin has all of the teachers fooled that he is a saint when he is just as bad as the rest of them."

"Well, excuse me Severus for trying to see the best in people. If I just listened to everyone's opinions about other people, our friendship would have ended first year," Lily huffed and crossed her arms.

Severus' resolved softened, "Lily.."

"Don't, Sev. You don't like it when I talk about who you choose to associate with, so we probably shouldn't talk about who I choose to associate with," Lily turned her head to the front of class, listening to Slughorn explain each potion they would be making throughout the term.

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"Johnson, you're looking fit as always," Sirius puckered his lips at her as she walked past during lunch.

"Shove it up yours, Black," Gabriella flipped him the bird.

"You'd think she would be a little more nice to me knowing we were each other's first kiss," Sirius pouted.

"Maybe. Maybe if she had a choice in the matter but you just kind of attacked her one night sitting by the fire," Remus laughed.

"She should be honored that my attraction to her was so strong that I couldn't physically hold myself back," he defended.

"I think she's just lucky that you were 13 and hadn't discovered the use of you tongue," James quipped.

"Or your hands," Peter snickered.

"As much as I would love to continue talking about Padfoot's kissing improvements, I would rather not," Remus moaned.

"I'll be happy to show you instead then," Sirius winked and Remus quickly looked away.

James raised his eyebrows at Remus' sudden shyness but quickly averted attention, "Wait I thought I was your first kiss!"

"Prongs, please don't shout that to the rooftops. I love you but I don't think I'm ready for the world to know that yet," Sirius shushed James as Peter couldn't control his laughter anymore.

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"Goodmorning Remus. No tweedledee and tweedledum with you?" Lily sat down next to him.

"You really think they're going to take alchemy? They take the required classes for auror training and then care of magical creatures and that's it. Nothing more, nothing less," Remus laughed as he scooted his bag out of her way.

"Aurors? That's a shock considering they're always bullying others and breaking the rules here at school," Lily reprimanded.

"Yeah I know but when it comes to the big things in the world that matter, they know they stand with what is right."

"Look at us, almost all of our conversations revolve around your friends. I hate that. Let's change it, how come you're in alchemy? I had you pegged for the DMLE," Lily smiled.

"The ministry?" Remus was genuinely shocked, "Why would you think that?"

"I dunno," Lily shrugged, "You seem so diplomatic and so smart and I just see you defending the little guys," Lily smiled up at him.

Remus smiled back without thinking, "Well that's nice of you to say, even though you are smarter. But I could never work for the ministry."

"Oh, why's that?"

"They'd never take me," Remus shrugged it off, wanting to change the subject.

"Oh as if, Remus. You're brill and the ministry would be lucky to have you," Lily patted his hand.

Remus was shocked by the contact. He wasn't opposed to it but he was never in a situation where he had physical contact with someone that wasn't a marauder. It was foreign but it was comforting, "Well I don't quite know what I want to do, so I thought I would cover all of my grounds and alchemy just seemed fun to learn about. What bout you? What are you wanting to do?"

"I want to go into either medical research and find new cures for things and hopefully combine muggle and magical medical treatment because yes magical treatment is beyond the muggle world but there are such simple things that muggles have a fix for that wizards and witches don't even realize, even some halfbloods who were raised in the wizarding community. That or I would like to focus primarily on potions and making new potions," one could see the glint of passion in Lily's eyes as she spoke of how she was going to change her wizarding community for the better.

"Oh so nothing too big," Remus chuckled, "That amazing, Lily, really. I have no doubt your name will be known across the entire magical world."

Lily blushed and let her bangs fall in her face a little.

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"So what exactly did she say, Moony?" James bounced on the balls of his feet as the marauders entered an empty classroom on the third floor.

"I've already told you what she said about you, about you and Pads," Remus jumped onto a desk and crossed his legs, opening his book, "Everything else had nothing to do with you."

"Yes, you've said that but if you guys are having deep and thoughtful conversations then that means you're mates. So if you're mates you can talk to her about boys - namely me."

Remus looked up and cocked his head a bit to the side, "How do you figure?"

"Because you're already mates, she can't hate you."

Sirius laughed and Remus shook his head, "Just because we have yet to kill each other when we're being stupid, doesn't mean that's the universal law for friendship. Lily can absolutely decide she doesn't want to listen to me talk you up and simply stop talking to me. So, sorry Prongs, but it's still not going to happen."

James huffed and went to sit in the corner.

"Okay, so we've done the potion last year and we did the mandrake leaf back in June, during finals. How the professors believed we were taking a vow of silence for Peter's dead cat," Sirius laughed.

"Which is ironic considering Wormtail's animagus is a mouse, if the tail and ears you got over the summer are any indication," Remus laughed with Sirius.

"I'm gonna be really upset if I'm not a dog and I'm a fox or something."

"Did you see the size of your paws? There's no way!" Remus encouraged, "Plus a dog makes sense. You're loyal to a fault. You're as messy as one. And chasing your tail could keep you entertained for hours."

"Not to mention how fluffy they were. I bet you'll be super cuddly," Peter piped up.

"Yet another thing that makes sense, you cuddle everyone, literally anywhere and it always looks extremely uncomfortable but there you are," James finally pitched in.

"I'll have you know, Moony, that I will be the first to finally catch their blasted tail," Sirius said with finality.

"Paddy boy, you won't be the first and you won't be the last," James consoled, "Alright, now let's get to it because I'll be damned if you get this before I do."

"As long as Peter doesn't get it before me, I'll be happy," Sirius teased and tried the spell first.

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"Good evening, Lily. How have your classes so far been?" Severus greeted as he sat down Wednesday night at their table in the library.

Lily pointed her nose to the ceiling, "Well I've seen you in just about all of them so far, you know how they've gone. Even though you've only actually spoken to me during potions, although barely, and ancient runes. Something leads me to believe that that was only because I'm the second in potions, after you, and because in ancient runes you don't have Avery in there, or any other Slytherin as a matter of fact. Don't believe that's what one would call a coincidence. Frankly, I'm surprised you even bothered to show up at all tonight."

Severus sighed, "Lily, I don't want to argue. We've barely seen each other over the summer because my parents insisted on traveling and visiting family and I have missed you. It's annoying listening to their comments when they feel that I've abandoned them because of a girl. I know what you're thinking, but it's not like that. They're finally over the girls are icky stage and they're insisting that I'm keeping a secret relationship with you. Of course I keep insisting otherwise, but then they turn around and insist that if I'm not dating you then I should sit with them," Severus rolled his eyes, "It's all very immature and I'm very close to telling them to shove off because you're my best mate, regardless of what Avery seems to think."

Lily slumped her shoulders in defeat, "I'm sorry, Sev. I just know what they say about me and 'my kind' and sometimes I think they'll bully you into completely ignoring me. But you're my oldest and best friend and I know our friendship is stronger than that but still.." Lily faded off.

Severus put his hand on hers and tried his attempt at a smile, "They can shove off."

Lily laughed and covered their hands with her other, "Glad to know you're still here. I have missed you over holiday as well. You're very boring to write to and Petunia was even more dreadful because I got my permit when I got home and she insisted I wouldn't need a car because I'm a wicked witch and can use my broom that I've got shoved up my- well yeah, she was particularly dreadful towards me."

"She, without a doubt, can shove it," Severus laughed when Lily snorted at his remark.

Lily rolled her eyes at him, with a smile on her face. He proceeded to talk to her about all of his theories on the latest potion experiment using frog flesh instead of dragon hide and why he thinks they'll regret it. She was listening but she also couldn't help but feel an overwhelming amount of relief as everything with Severus seemed to be normal. Their two encounters earlier in the week had to of been a fluke. This was Sev, the one who told her she was a witch and taught her so much, and that has still been here through everything. Sev wasn't going anywhere.

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"Come on, Pete. I'm going to drop all of this before I can even make it halfway to the common room. So many bloody stairs ahead of us!" James tried to pick up the pace while also juggling three plates with eggs, sausage, and pancakes, a bowl of oatmeal, a cup of tea, and a cup of orange juice.

"Well your legs are about five inches longer than mine, Prongs! I can only walk so fast before breaking out in an all out sprint," Peter barked, holding two bowls of dry cereal, two plates of toast, and a big goblet of milk.

"Now there's an idea," James bit back.

"And where, pray tell, are you two going?" Lily stood in the entrance of the great hall with her hands on her hips.

If one were to ask James, he would have said that Lily was quite fit when she was telling him off. Thankfully nobody asked him.

"Umm, Sirius, sick, food," Peter mumbled out.

"I don't think so. If he's so sick that he can't come down and eat breakfast then he ought to go to the infirmary. You might as well put those back because you'll not be leaving with them," Lily demanded.

Of course, no one ever had to actually ask James in order for him to say what he thought about Lily, so he went ahead and said it anyways.

"There's something about you scolding me that's unlike when my mum does it. I dunno if it's your hands on your wonderfully curvy hips or your powerful stance- no, mum's got an intimidating stance as well. Hmm, maybe it's the way your green eyes just penetrate my soul. Our kids are going to have your eyes, I just know it," James admired.

"I mean, Prongs, your mum's got curvy hips too-" Peter started.

"Never you mind my mum's hips! Merlin, Wormtail, you don't look at a bloke's mum! Let alone talk about her. What in blazes is wrong with you?" James ragged, almost spilling Remus' cuppa.

"Where's Remus? He most certainly wouldn't approve of you doing this either. I'm sure Sirius is just being lazy-," Lily was cut off very quickly, and quite surprisingly by Peter.

"Actually there's no official rule saying that we cannot take food from the great hall into our dorms. There's just no one who really does it. So if you'll excuse us. Sorry, Lily," Peter squeaked as he shuffled past her.

"Mate, are you alright? You look like you're going to shite yourself," James said in awe as he followed after the shorter, shaking boy.

"Lily is right scary but me spilling this milk in the entrance and drawing attention from everyone, especially McGonagall, is a bit scarier. Two more seconds and that would have been my future," Petter whispered, even thought Lily had long stormed off.

James just shook his head and laughed at his unbelievably shy best friend.

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"You're sure you haven't found anything, Moony?" Sirius whined with his tail between his legs.

Remus looked up with a smirk when he saw the tail have a mind of its' own, "Yes I'm sure, but my sources are limited because I haven't been down to the restricted section yet."

Sirius whined once more as he plopped onto Remus' bed, effectively preventing him from looking for any new information. He knew it was pointless though. He read the books numerous times before.

"We'll figure something out, Pads. On the bright side, that's definitely not a fox's tail," Remus snickered.

"Oh alert the presses, we've got a new comedian," Sirius said without laughter in his tone.

"Lighten up. If anything, Pomfrey will be able to fix it. We'll tell her it was a prank gone wrong, a combination of trick spells."

"This is why you're the brains; you think of literally everything," Sirius shoved Remus' arm out of the way so he could cuddle up to his side.

"You guys are actually quite lucky you've befriended me. You and Prongs would have been expelled by second year. I would actually have some sane mates and Wormtail-"

"Would have only one friend, instead of three," Sirius interjected, "You and Wormy are the lucky ones. We are an absolute riot, me and James."

Remus rolled his eyes as Sirius yawned, "Getting comfortable, are you?"

"Yes. You know I like to sleep when it's warmer and you're the hottest one of us all," Sirius shut his eyes and rested his head on Remus' chest.

Remus blushed at the use of the word 'hotter' and didn't know how to respond. Thankfully he heard Sirius snoring immediately upon going lax. The door opened at that same time and in walked James and Peter with breakfast.

James cocked one eyebrow and looked at Remus with a smirk, "Comfortable?"

"You know Sirius, knows not of personal space," Remus whispered, "Plus we all know this was going to happen. It's Saturday and he only woke up as early as he did because we wanted to know if his tail had gone. We'll go to Pomfrey tomorrow evening if it's not gone. Pass me my tea, will you?"

James didn't wipe the smirk off of his face but passes Remus his tea without comment.


End file.
